After a 12 year run as a staple operating system for desktop PCs, support for Windows XP will finally be ending on April 8, 2014. Office 2003 support and “Windows XP Mode” available in Windows 7 will also cease to be supported. There will be no more security updates or technical support for any of these products and it is very important that you make plans to migrate to supported versions.

What are the risks to businesses in general?

Using Windows XP in your organization after April 8, 2014 may expose you to many security risks, hardware compatibility issues, and potential compliance issues such as PCI or HIPAA.

Without critical Windows XP security updates, your PC may become vulnerable to viruses, spyware, and other malicious software which can steal or damage your business data and information.

Due to cease in official support, many software and hardware vendors will no longer support their products running on Windows XP as they are unable to receive the updates they need. For example, the new versions of Microsoft Office take advantage of the modern Windows and will not run on Windows XP. Eventually drivers required to run Windows XP on new hardware may not be available.

Any businesses that are governed by regulatory obligations such as HIPAA may find that they are no longer able to satisfy compliance requires.

What are the options to stay up to date?

Windows 7 and 8 are both currently supported operating systems and are recommended by Microsoft as your path for updating. The migration path from XP to either of these systems can be difficult and should be well researched. You will need to look closely at what hardware and software your business relies upon to function and make sure updates or replacements are ready for deployment when the time comes. This may also be an opportune time to reevaluate how your business operates and consider changes that may not have been considered in the past. Perhaps updating our even retiring your on premise server and migrating to a cloud based solution or entertaining Linux and/or FOSS as a potential replacement to some or all of your business processes.

Time is of the essence!

The longer you wait to enact a plan to migrate your systems, the more hectic and disruptive to your business the project may become. Let us provide a consultation to aid in getting a plan together. It is free and without obligation, so Contact Us today!